Goodbye Google Checkot - We don't want your new high fees

For quite a while now, Google Checkout has offered uniquely simple and competitive credit card processing for online merchants. 2% + $.20 / transaction with no monthly fees. And for those who advertise with Google, FREE processing for up to 10x your advertising spending. This offer was one of the best deals available for small businesses.

Just today, Google has announced that they are raising their fees... a hard hit against new or smaler merchants. The base fee of $.20 is now raised to $.30 and the discount rate is raised as high as 2.9%. For small business, this means upwards of $200-$300 in new fees each year. For small-medium sized merchants, this is an increase of close to $1000+ each year. For those taking advantage of Google's free processing, this increase may be more than double those figures.

Those that have searched for credit card processing know that it is a cut-throat industry where the goal is to take as much money as possible from the merchant. For a while, Google offered a refreshing new option that received high praise. With this change, Google is just another greedy company extracting every penny out of its customers.